General A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". O ...

Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope (1 March 1874 – 14 September 1947) was a British soldier and colonial administrator.

Military career

Educated at

Repton School Repton School is a 13–18 co-educational, independent, day and boarding school in the English public school tradition, in Repton, Derbyshire, England. Sir John Port of Etwall, on his death in 1557, left funds to create a grammar school whi ...

, Wauchope was commissioned into the

Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland. Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...

in 1893. He transferred to the 2nd Battalion Black Watch in January 1896. He served in the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the So ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

from 1899, and took part in operations in

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with ...

, south of

Orange River The Orange River (from Afrikaans/Dutch: ''Oranjerivier'') is a river in Southern Africa. It is the longest river in South Africa. With a total length of , the Orange River Basin extends from Lesotho into South Africa and Namibia to the north ...

. British forces advancing north from the Cape to relieve the town of Kimberley, which was sieged by Boer forces, met heavy resistance in the Battle of Magersfontein on 11 December 1899. Wauchope was severely wounded in the battle, and was later

mentioned in despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

and appointed a Companion of the

Distinguished Service Order The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, ty ...

(DSO) for his services. In April 1902 he was seconded for a Staff appointment, as an extra Aide de camp to Sir Walter Hely-Hutchinson, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the

. He served in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

Commanding Officer The commanding officer (CO) or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitu ...

of 2 Bn Black Watch in France and

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...

. After the War he joined 2nd Silesian Brigade, part of the British Upper Silesian Force, in Germany. He became Military Member of an Overseas Delegation to Australia and New Zealand in 1923 and then Chief of the British Section of the Military Inter-Allied Commission of Control for

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

in 1924. He was appointed General Officer Commanding

44th (Home Counties) Division The Home Counties Division was an infantry division of the Territorial Force, part of the British Army, that was raised in 1908. As the name suggests, the division recruited in the Home Counties, particularly Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and Sussex. ...

in 1927 and GOC Northern Ireland District in 1929. His last appointment was as High Commissioner and Commander-in-Chief for Palestine and Trans-Jordan in 1931. Wauchope's administration was generally sympathetic to Zionist aspirations. By 1941 the former chief immigration officer for the Mandate,

Albert Montefiore Hyamson Albert Montefiore Hyamson, (27 August 1875 – 5 October 1954) was a British civil servant and historian who served as chief immigration officer in the British Mandate of Palestine from 1921 to 1934. The Political Zionist of the 1910s and 192 ...

, could write in his book '' Palestine: A Policy'' that "the first four years of his auchope'sterm were the heyday of Zionist history in Palestine." Not only did immigration go up threefold (the Jewish population increased from 174,606 to 329,358), but Jews also increased their land holdings (in 1931 they increased their land holdings by 18,585 dunams or 4,646 acres, while in 1935 they increased them by 72,905), and finally Jewish business and commerce enjoyed an economic boom.Hyamson, Albert Montefiore. ''Palestine: A Policy'' Methuen, 1942, p. 147 He also promoted public works and civil engineering schemes but was regarded as lax at the early stages of the Arab rebellion. He retired in 1938. File:הנציב העליון ארתור ווקופ נוטע עץ ביער בלפור בגבעת שימרון בעמק יזרעאל. מימינו מנחם אוסישקין משמאלו יו-JNF037282.jpeg, Wauchope with Menachem Ussishkin in Palestine, 1928 File:כפר החורש - הנציב העליון נואם בחגיגת הנטיעה של יער אלברט.-JNF044743.jpeg, Wauchope speaking at

Kfar HaHoresh Kfar HaHoresh ( he, כְּפַר הַחֹרֶשׁ, כפר החורש, , Village of the Thicket) is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located near Nazareth, it falls under the jurisdiction of Jezreel Valley Regional Council. In it had a populatio ...

1936

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Wauchope, Arthur Grenfell 1874 births 1947 deaths Military personnel from Edinburgh British Army generals People educated at Repton School Black Watch officers Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders officers British Army personnel of the Second Boer War British Army personnel of World War I British High Commissioners of Palestine Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire Companions of the Distinguished Service Order British military personnel of the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine